After A Case Like That
by LivelyStevens
Summary: How some of characters deal with the Marty Pino case. Mentions of DL.


It's hard not to look inside and evaluate the day after a case like that. Would it be that turning point in someone's life that everything would come back to? Would the rumors start 'You know, they've never been the same since…?' Would it be the case that would haunt them? One by one they closed out the day and dealt in their own way with the after effects of a case like that.

Sid left the scene first, even before the cuffs were put on, and drove straight home. His wife was sitting in the front room of their home worrying about what would take her husband away so abruptly. She was used to the long house, but not her husband rising from the dinner table to answer the phone and then leave the house quickly without a word. There was a book on her lap that had gone untouched for the last fifteen minutes as she watched out the front window for the headlights of his car.

He came home looking drained and ten years older. He slumped further once the door was closed and locked behind him. Not caring about what time it was, he called his daughters quickly to hear their voices and tell them he loved them. Then he motioned for his wife to join him in the kitchen. He busied himself making two cups of tea. Setting them down on the table he took his seat and started shredding a napkin in front of him. Then he started talking

Sid talked for a long time, telling his wife exactly what happened. In the past, he would tell her of a strange finding while he was doing an autopsy or about the detectives he worked with, but never had he set down and told her about a case from the first moment the detective stepped onto a scene through to when the suspect had been lead off in cuffs. She listened carefully and tried to sooth the feelings of guilt and responsibility that he was having. She also tried to help him understand the actions of someone they had both taken in as a son.

The sun was coming over the horizon when they made it to the bottom of the stairs, heading up for sleep. It would be the first time he called out of work for personal reasons in seven years.

Danny left shortly after Pino was driven away in a squad car for processing and booking. Danny drove straight home, opened a beer and called his wife.

"Hey babe."

"Hey." She excused herself from the living room and went out the porch. She read right through the fake bravado he used on the phone earlier. "What happened today?"

"You remember Marty Pino? He unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it off, throwing it in the corner with his other dirty laundry.

"He was the ME who worked the Tyrell Mann case."

"Yeah, yeah, that's him. We arrested him tonight."

"On what?" The shock in her voice was very clear.

"He was a drug dealer." He stated and sighed.

"I take it there's more to this story."

He started to fill her in on the details. She listened quietly as he talked. "..and then this guy bursts through the door carrying a weapon and I followed him. We exchanged a few rounds before I shot him. He told us that Pino was the dealer that he was supposed to meet in the motel."

"Danny, why were you hanging in the truck while Mac and Flack were inside?"

"You don't miss a thing Montana." He shifted on the bed knowing that he was about to get chewed out. "I'd left my vest in my locker and Mac told me to hang back at the truck."

"And you followed this guy into a construction site and exchanged a few rounds? That's it I'm coming home. I leave and you lose all sense."

"No, its good. I was washing the guys blood off my hands when you called. I was a little shaken, but I'm good now. Believe it or not, talking to you has been helping. We arrested Pino, and closed down his operation." Danny laughed quietly. "Operation, that word fits. He was extracting the drugs from the organs of addicts who'd died. It started when he was in the ME's office. Linds."

"Oh my God."

"He had a storage unit that he worked from. I saw the pictures. It looked like something out of one of those Saw movies." There was a long silent pause. He ran his hand over his head.

"You gonna be alright?"

"Yeah, I am. Tell me about your day, what did the beaver die of? And how's the kid treating you?"

Danny listened to her voice for a long time. Her voice soothed him and helped him get over the day. Images of what she talked about started replacing the things that he saw and heard today. She talked of cravings, sleep she'd gotten, and life on her parents' ranch. She lulled him to sleep with loving whispers of how much she missed her husband and what a great father he would make. With his phone to his ear and clutching her pillow, he fell asleep.

Hawkes' feet covered a lot more distance during his run that night. He changed in the locker room and took off from there. He knew the streets and mindlessly chose a direction. He was angry, how could this have happened, what gave Pino the idea of getting drugs from the organs, how could no one have noticed that this was going on under their noses? His shoes kept a steady rhythm on the empty sidewalk as he passed dark store fronts and crossed streets, around corners and down empty avenues. He felt betrayed. Pino was someone he'd shared his down time with, his job with. Why would he allow his wife to get involved? She should have just left him, but he also knew that she probably thought she could get them out of this. All of the 'what ifs' played in his head: what if he had stayed in the ME's office, didn't fudge on his overtime slips, what if he hadn't been fired. His thoughts jumbled. Jogging usually cleared his thought but it just gave him extra time to go deeper in his thoughts.

Halfway through his run it struck him that Pino's dealings had probably been going on for a long time. There was nothing he could do to change it. His thoughts then went to her family and what they would be told and to Pino and what was in store for him now. Sheldon ran early into the predawn hours of the morning and ending back to the lab. Maybe a shower and sleep on a couch somewhere in the office was in his future. He let the water pour over him and he hoped it would wash away some of the day's events.

Mac walked into the office and shuffled through the file one more time. Numerous color photos of each of the scenes, evidence, and participants shuffled through his fingers. Handwritten statements from officers and investigators involved slid over the top of his desk. Autopsy reports and chemical analysis on the drugs were the last things his eyes met. He was baffled about how a murder in a motel could take this many twists and turns and lead straight to the ME's office over drugs. This touched almost everyone in the lab, waves from this was going to be felt for a while.

Closing the file, Mac knew that he still had to deal with Danny and the fact that he left the truck without his vest to chase the guy. He didn't know what he would do about that. He laughed a bit. Maybe Lindsay would yell at him enough to take care of it for him.

Sitting in his chair he put his head back and wondered how the kid got into the business and how long this case was going to linger. In the morning he would start digging into the Diakos case and he would need everyone with their heads on straight.

Moving the closed Pino case off to the side, he started to study the Diakos file and tried to focus on the facts and timeline. His head drooped a few times. Mac cleared his desk and headed home to get some sleep. There would be a lot to deal with in the morning with his team, especially after a case like this.


End file.
